“Expanded Views II: Native American Art in Focus”

 Potter Maria/Marie Poveka (means Pond Lily in Tewa language) (Montoya) Martinez’s (1887-1980) and painter Julian Martinez’s (1879-1943) signatures are written at the bottom of the “Large Black Bowl” made in circa 1926-1940 and acquired by the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) in 2019. The jar has a shinny polished black surface which contrasts with the unpolished/matte black curvilinear and geometric abstract designs that occupy more than half of the globular shaped body of the storage jar that measures 15 1/8 x 21 ¾ inches (38.4 x 55.2 cm.). Maria and Julian Martinez were Tewa Nation's descendants, who married in 1904, year when they traveled to the World Fair in Saint Louis, MO, where Maria Martinez demonstrated to the public her pottery skills and became known as "The Potter of San Ildefonso" (Marriot, 1948). Since 1919, her pottery has been in "great demand" (Spivey, 2003, page 29). She made pottery by hand until 1970. "She never decorated pottery herself" (Spivey, 2003, page 20), her husband, Julian, painted the designs with yucca root brushes, that he made by chewing the tip of the yucca leaves. Julian Martinez adopted and modified pottery drawing designs from different Native Nations. These designs were compiled in his personal notebook that was lost when he died in 1947. The notebook was destroyed by fire, as part of his native funeral ceremony (Spivey, 2003, page 20). Maria and Julian Martinez discovered black-on-black style of pottery, (Spivey, 2003, page 7), that became a hallmark of their craftmanship that impacted the San Ildefonso Pueblo's emergence in the pottery industry.

For the sake of description on how the artworks are displayed in the exhibit, “Expanded Views II: Native American Art in Focus”, I will use a method of a clockwise visual trajectory, following the walls of the room, starting at the 6 o’clock point being the position when standing at the main entrance.

At the 7 o’clock point, there is a rectangular glass case that contains three Southwest Pueblo small-size pottery, all made in 1931, among them, one was done by Maria Martinez. In the left corner of the room, at 8 o’clock, a rectangular glass case contains a glass sculpture in the shape of a female wolf, in the position of lying down on her side, on a base made of a rectangular piece of walnut wood. This sculpture was done by Marie Watt, a Seneca Nation member, in 2017. 

At 9 o’clock, there is a rectangular glass case that displays “Beauty in dreams beaded bag,” done in 2019, by Ken Williams, Jr, a member from the Arapaho, Seneca Nation. At each side of this glass case, two oil paintings that depict American landscapes: “The Wilderness,” 1860, by Sanford Robinson Gifford and “Indians simulating Buffalo,” 1908 by Frederic Remington.

In the wall, in front of the entrance door, at 12 o’clock, a wood ramp, that occupies the whole width of the wall, and up to half of the height of the wall; four colorful Navajo textiles are displayed. These native American textiles, a loan from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, provide a sample of how the elements of art (color, lines, shapes, texture) were used in the late XIX and early XX centuries by the Navajo Nation’s women, who made them by hand.

In the wall, from 1 to 3 o'clock, a 15-panel oil painting "Triichum," made in 2009, by James Lavadour, a member of the Walla Walla Nation. This artwork is a loan from a private collector.

At 4 o’clock, a rectangular glass case displays a blue irregular shaped, somewhat rectangular, handwoven basket by Shan Goshorn, a descendent Eastern band Cherokee, who named her artwork “Swept Away,” done in 2017. The TMA (Toledo Museum of Art) acquired it in 2019.

At the 5 o’clock point, there is an oil painting “El Capitan, Yosemite Valley, California,” 1875, by Albert Bierstadt.

The presence of oil paintings portraying the North American landscape, helps us understand the living surroundings of the American Native people, who made the objects presented in the exhibit, and to understand their use of the environmental resources available to them. Also, to understand the blue basket’s historical significance is a reminder that can help us understand the country and world’s historical times that Maria and Julian Martinez were enduring while making pottery in San Ildefonso, New Mexico. These geo-political U.S.A./country’s policies that could had influenced in their views how to raise their family and how to express their art in regards to their minority ethnic group status. All these considerations that relates to our humanity can be topic of conversations to be discussed, by focusing in each art object at a time. The fact that most of the hand-made objects were done by women, relates to the importance of women in the Native American communities and the distribution of labor between the sexes. Women artists in the exhibit are present by their work on textiles, basketry, pottery and glass sculpture. Men artists are individualized by their work in oil canvas, oil panel, ceramic/pottery paintings and bead work. 

References

Marriot, A. (1948). Maria: The Potter of San Ildefonso. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.

Mera, H. P. (1938). Pueblo Designs. 176 Illustrations of the "Rain Bird". New York: Dover Publications, Inc.

Mera, H. P. (1939). Style Trends of Pueblo Pottery in the Rio Grande and Little Colorado Cultural Areas from the XVI to XIX Century. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Waverly Press, Inc.

Peterson, S. (1981). The Living Tradition of Maria Martinez. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.

Smith Sides, D. (1961). Decorative Art of the Southwestern Indians. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: General Publishing Company, Ltd.

Spivey, R. L. (2003). The Legacy of Maria Poveka Martinez. Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA: Museum of New Mexico Press.

Stiles, H. E. (1939). Pottery of the American Indians. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.